Clement wants public service contracts signed before next election

Treasury Board President Tony Clement says he wants to conclude negotiations with unions representing tens of thousands of federal public servants before the next federal election.

Asked during an interview with iPolitics whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government can go into the next election, slated for October 2015, with labour contracts unsigned, Clement was blunt.

“I don’t think that’s reasonable,” he replied. “Within the next 12 months, we should be able to find some solutions.”

Clement was even more blunt when asked about the possibility that some unions would prefer to negotiate a contract with a successor to the Harper government.

“Well, they’re not going to have that opportunity, so I would suggest that they get down to brass tacks right now.”

Clement’s comments come as the government and the unions that represent nearly 200,000 federal public servants have begun what are expected to be tough negotiations to renew collective agreements.

They also come amid concerns on the part of a number of union leaders that the government will provoke a crisis or a strike in order to boost its popularity and increase its chances of being re-elected.

Clement dismisses the suggestion.

“When people strike it’s because the union decides to strike – not because the management decides to strike.”

“I am going to continue to offer fair and reasonable solutions and my place to do that is at the bargaining table,” he added. “I hope and expect and desire to have an interlocutor or series of interlocutors who will take my concerns seriously on behalf of the taxpayer and government. Hopefully we can find the magic formula that will get us to the solutions.”

If anyone is playing politics, it is the unions, Clement suggested.

“There has been a lot of rhetorical flourish, shall we say, on their side. I have noticed they have really ramped that up. I guess that’s the political context of this. They have allies in the NDP and to some extent with the Liberal party as well, so they will try to use every lever at their disposal to leverage what they see as their preferred solutions.”

“But I have a joint, dual responsibility, that is to say that I want to make sure that our employees are looked after in a fair and reasonable way but at the same time it has to be an accountable system for the taxpayer.”

Clement also vowed not to bow to intimidation such as the demonstration in front of his Port Sydney home recently by more than 100 federal corrections officers protesting the government’s proposal to overhaul the federal government’s sick leave regime.

“I think it is important that this kind of activity not be rewarded by having an impact on what I’m going to be presenting at the bargaining table. I try to ignore that and keep focused on what my job is.”

Most of the government’s collective agreements have expired and most of those that remain in effect are up by the end of the year.

Talks are off to a slow start, in part because the government has not yet tipped its hand on a couple of fronts. Most departments have not revealed which jobs they plan to designate as “essential” in the event of a strike or job action and while some negotiators have had informal conversations, unions have still not received the details of its plan to overhaul the public service’s system of sick days.

Clement wants to replace the existing system of bankable sick days with a smaller number of sick days coupled with a short-term disability plan.

Public service unions have vowed to work together to fight Clement’s plan. Exceptionally, they are working together and pooling their resources. While each union will still bargain separately, they are sharing things like research and information.

Clement said he would have preferred to work informally with public service unions to come up with a new sick leave regime and the refusal by the unions to discuss a new sick leave system anywhere but the bargaining table has resulted in talks to renew 27 collective agreements getting off to a slow start.

“We had tried to engage them in trying to get their advice on how to devise a new system that would replace the banks of days with a more commonly found short term disability plan that is more common in other public sectors as well as the private sector.”

“The unions, obviously, made a tactical decision that no union was going to have that discussion with us. So, now we are at the stage where we are having to fashion what we think is a fair and reasonable new system without their input at the front end and so obviously that will prolong bargaining at the back end.”

Clement did not give any indication of when he plans to table his proposal.

Clement said overhauling the public service sick leave system is the key question at stake in these negotiations.

“What’s at stake…is having a system that is more modern, that will have a better handle on mental wellness and mental illness issues, that will make sure that employees have the care they need to get back to work healthier, sooner. Obviously, from the taxpayer view, we want to reduce absenteeism. In the case of individuals who are taking advantage of the system, we want to reduce that and have a system in place to help people when they are sick.”

“That’s what’s at stake. I think it’s important if we are going to have a productive workforce, a happy workforce of people who are motivated to come to work that we do change the system.”

4 comments on “Clement wants public service contracts signed before next election”

Mr. Clement has admirably defined a problem that doesn’t exist, in order to insult a group of people who can’t fight back. We can only hope he awards himself the same level of benefits as he is imposing, so he doesn’t have to work through his own disability.

Barry are you suggesting that our best and brightest elected representative don’t deserver 100% unlimited sick leave pay, 100 percent health care coverage, 6 months off each year and retire after only 6 years of working. Your being unreasonable.

The sick leave issue doesn’t make any sense. If a bunch of sick leave is being carried over/banked, doesn’t that just mean that people aren’t going off on sick leave? How is that a problem? I suspect what you’ll see is some people who were inclined to let their sick leave roll over will take it all in a new system because there’s it’s going to disappear anyway.